Not Your Ordinary Little Cupcake Bakeshop

Little Cupcake Bakeshop cupcakes, above and below, know how to draw a crowd, middle, to the shop. Bottom, a plethora of celebrity chefs will help close out The Edible Garden. Cupcake photos by Yours Truly. The Edible Garden photo courtesy of The New York Botanical Garden.

WITHOUT a doubt one of the most popular is Southern Red Velvet. Chocolate Cloud is also getting its share of love. Carrot has some folks salivating, including a colleague with whom I share half of the one sitting pretty in the little pink box the cashier handed to me. Yours Truly favors the white cake/chocolate frosting number.

Introducing some of the nearly dozen types of cupcakes available at the Little Cupcake Bakeshop. The Soho newbie is having a grand opening party on 10 Oct. 2010 aka 10.10.10. Just what New York needs, right, another cupcake shop? But these are not your run-of-the-mill cupcakes, nor is this your run-of-the-mill bakery.

Little Cupcake Bakeshop cupcakes and cakes and pies and cookies & bars come into being from the freshest, wholest, localest ingredients. Stuff like New Jersey eggs and Vermont butter. In an imperfect world the bakery can be forgiven for getting its chocolate as far away as Europe.

According to its owners, Little Cupcake Bakeshop is the first carbon neutral bakery in Manhattan. “Throughout our operational processes we attempt to meet the highest standards of environmental responsibility,” they say on the Web site. This includes equipment, lights – even paint and cleaners. One doesn’t reckon there’s any Pine-Sol under the sink. When the bakery cannot eliminate carbon in its everyday operation – say making something like the banana pudding that is delicious and not too sweet– it atones by donating dough (money) to Carbon Fund. The non-profit plants trees that soak carbon to balance the carbon emissions released by such offenders.

Little Cupcake Bakeshop pointedly opened on 10.10.10 as part of an international day of climate action led by the movement, 350. Like Earth Day, it’s a space in time that unites the world around a common cause relating to the environment.

Such good deeds as these and Little Cupcake Bakeshop’s Little Cupcake Initiative can’t help but enhance the taste of the Strawberry Rhubarb pie and the Oatmeal Butterscotch Peanut Butter cookie, no?

Learn more about Little Cupcake Bakeshop, including the Little Cupcake Initiative, at http://www.littlecupcakebakeshop.com/; 350 at www.350.org, and the Carbon Fund at http://www.carbonfund.org/.

'The Edible Garden' Prepares to Serve Last Meals

IN the Conservatory Kitchen on Saturday, Mario Bartoli is whipping up Cavolo Nero with Ricotta, Spaghetti All'Amatriciana
and Mortadella Ripiena. I have no idea what this is, but it sounds scrumptious.

And so does Beet and Goat Cheese Risotto, the aromas of which Todd English will fill the kitchen on Sunday.

Michael Psilakis visits the Perennial Garden to sign “How to Roast a Lamb: New Greek Classic Cooking"; ditto for Nan K. Chase with “Eat Your Yard!”

That doesn’t grab you? Two words, then: Groovy Gourds.

Folks, several reasons to hustle over to The Edible Garden at The New York Botanical Garden this coming weekend before the months-long culinary exhibition about growing and preparing food shutters on Sunday (17 Oct.).

To sweeten the pot, two more words: Free samples.

Visit www.nybg.org for complete information about "The Edible Garden," including links to recipes and how to purchase tickets.